


LET'S BURN THE STAGE CRIMSON WITH OUR SOULS

by adoluvr



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Character Study, Developing Friendships, Gen, M/M, Relationship Study, childhood to war to current timeline, not beta read (again) we strategize like ibara and perish on the fie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28983471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adoluvr/pseuds/adoluvr
Summary: Keito smiles. And it's not the first time he's smiled like he does now and it certainly won't be the last, because AKATSUKI stands with him and he is one of them. He's eighteen and he's okay now and there's nothing stopping him, anymore."Let's burn the stage," he says, mostly under his breath, but he feels his unit-mates perk up by his sides, nonetheless.Let's burn this stage crimson with our souls.
Relationships: Hasumi Keito & Sakuma Rei, Hasumi Keito & Tenshouin Eichi, Hasumi Keito/Kiryuu Kurou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	LET'S BURN THE STAGE CRIMSON WITH OUR SOULS

**Author's Note:**

> before u go, the events aren't in any chronological order. im not Good at being chronological. the only reason there's like a shit ton of reikei instead of keichi is because unfortunately I like rei but in any case I genuinely hope u like this!

Keito notices the unfamiliar presence in the graveyard opposite of the main temple when he's five years old and not exactly unaware of what being in a graveyard normally entails. 

The alien in the graveyard, as he comes to call the presence, is quiet. Most of the time. There's some times where he sits on top of a gravestone with a thick book open in his lap and there's some times where he aimlessly roams around. Looks at the sky. Looks at the ground. Kneels down, digs into the earth with his little fists, and watches the dirt crumble. Gathers the dirt up and sprinkles it upon the stones as if he's some sort of entity passing on some sort of blessing. Keito thinks this is probably illegal. But Keito is also five and five-year olds do not get entangled with aliens. And so he stays quiet.

-

Keito notices that the unfamiliar - or, now familiar? somewhat? - presence in the graveyard is more of an eccentric that he'd previously thought so possible. He's seven-years old now and with a wiser mind than his five-year self, but there is no doubt that this presence is an alien. There is no doubt that he can sprout leather-black wings from the skin between his shoulders and disappear into the sky. There is nothing usual about a boy his age wandering around graveyards with a small following of adults lurking around him for measly advice on measly matters. He doesn't refuse them. Not even once. 

Keito can't fathom it. He watches him on a basis almost daily through the modest little window of his room and he watches him sit on one of the taller gravestones with his legs crossed over themselves and with a smile too unearthly to be real, and he watches him look down at the adults kneeling down to him. He watches the alien laugh, wave his hand at them as if he's not also probably seven-years old but someone who's lived  _ through  _ immortality and possibly beyond.

He's like a character in one of his manga. Similar to the trope of a morally-grey character that means no harm but means no cautious stability, either. 

It's curious. 

-

He doesn't know why, or  _ how  _ exactly he makes up his mind for it. Nearly skipping out of his temple with a small basket with a few snacks (an offering for friendship? possibly? he isn't sure himself) in his hands he makes his way to the acclaimed alien's resident graveyard and enters it with the frightened impression of a child who's just laid eyes on a horror attraction at an amusement park. It's nearly evening. The sun is setting. The place is devoid of grass and devoid of trees except for a few standing over peacefully, as if they were guards, on the graves. 

Keito doesn't see the alien. He checks his watch. It should be time. A glance around the area shows some of his... _ devotees _ lingering around. The green-haired boy feels himself get more anxious by the minute. He doesn't even know why he's here. Or what led him here. A spell? 

There's a subtle  _ crack  _ of a branch, and Keito barely has the time to turn around on instinct before a firm hand grasps his arm, and his eyes shoot back to meet with red ones. 

"Hey," the alien says. 

Keito stumbles back, and falls.

-

"Lemme see it," comes a fussy voice. There's a hand protectively holding one of Keito's and one that's patting at his shoulder insistently like a worried mother. "C'mon,  _ bouzu _ , stop bein' shy." 

"Please don't call me that," Keito says, like some sort of loser. He looks back at the alien with a cautious expression. There's some of the previously lingering devotees lingering around  _ them  _ now, and he feels himself get a little shifty and also a little like he cannot care at all. Not when he's staring at...this  _ creature,  _ right in the eyes.

Red eyes. Jet-black, long hair tumbling down onto his shoulders. Lips stretched to his cheeks in an undoubtedly unearthly smile. Skin possibly fairer than the snow piling around the graves. His cheeks are flushed in a peach shade courtesy of the cold, and vaguely Keito thinks there's probably nothing more pleasant than that contrast. He's wearing a white, billowy blouse and black shorts, knee-length socks and boots. There's a cream-coloured jacket around his shoulders Keito doesn't know why isn't around his body, and a small scarf that just covers up his chin.

Keito also thinks he's probably never seen anyone more beautiful. Unrealistically beautiful. He's seven-years old and he's had his fair share of looking at people in and out of his manga, yet there's probably one no more beautiful than this...alien. He's not sure if he should call him an alien, at this point. But there's no other way to explain it, anyways.

"Yeah?" The alien responds, in his easy-going alien voice and his signature easy-going alien grin. "Ya gonna stop me,  _ bouzu?"  _

"I don't think I'd be able to," Keito mumbles, truthfully. He looks away again, unable to stare at someone like this for too long.

"Mm, correct." There's a pause, and then: "Show me."

Hesitantly, Keito turns so that his arm faces the boy. There's a small bruise forming on his skin, and the only thing the son of the temple wants to do is to cover it up with his sweater and go back home. This wasn't a good idea.

The alien tuts. His small fingers graze over Keito's skin as if it were made of glass, taking it into his hands carefully and lifting his arm up to eye-level. He inspects it, the arm's owner letting the boy go along and do...whatever he's doing. The red eyes look back up, again, and before Keito has a chance to ask him what he has in mind the alien presses his lips right on top of the bruise.

Keito stares. 

"Ya wouldn't know this _ ,  _ but a vampire's kiss can have healin' properties."

Keito stares. He yanks his arm out of the other's grip with a newfound confusion.

"Vampire?" He repeats, and then straightens himself up. "Vampires aren't real. Not outside of fiction." 

The boy laughs. He throws his head back and laughs as if this is the funniest thing that has ever been said to him, and then looks again at Keito with a somewhat smug expression. He leans in, red eyes staring into his. 

"They're real," he says, and Keito notices a tired drawl in his voice. "Ya wanna see,  _ bouzu?"  _

"See, how?" 

Rei opens his mouth in a grin.

Keito looks at the two fangs poking out of his mouth for a few seconds before he has to look away. Well. Maybe that explains why he's alien-like.

"You're not from this world, are you?" Because obviously, he's an alien.

"Wrong," the vampire says, as if they're on some game show and Keito's on his last attempt to get a clue. "Unfortunately, I'm from this world."

"That doesn't make sense," Keito argues, because he's seven-years old and seven-year olds don't regularly stumble into vampires they've been watching for a while in the graveyard their families carry out funeral processions in. "Vampires only exist in manga. Or books." 

"If I tell ya I'm one of them, then," the other counters. "What, then?" 

"That won't make sense, either."

The boy smiles, again. It's eerie. It becomes more eerie each second. Keito spares a second to look around, and some of the devotees are now walking around them in a suspicious arc. Keito wants to run away.

"Sometimes,  _ bouzu,"  _ he says. "Ya hafta accept things the way they are." 

He gets up. Keito stares at him walking down to meet with the devotees that rush to him in a way extremely frightening for a seven-year old kid watching, sweater billowing out to make him look as if he's some sort of descending angel. As if he's not some self-proclaimed creature of the dark.

The boy turns. Red eyes meet green.

"By the way," he says, and Keito wants to do nothing but  _ run _ . "The name's Sakuma Rei." 

He smiles.

"We gotta meet again, yeah? I think yer a bit interestin',  _ Hasumi-kun _ ." 

  
  


Keito takes one last look at him before getting up, and making a frighteningly quick beeline towards the gate leading out of the graveyard.

  
  
  


The basket lays behind, forgotten.

-

The next time Keito looks out of his window and into the graveyard next to the temple, Sakuma Rei's red eyes are looking back at him, already. He almost drops the tea he's holding.

-

Keito doesn't look out of his window anymore. His bruise heals unnaturally quick, too.

-

Keito turns eight on a cold day in September and decides to meet the alien again. Maybe it's out of sheer curiosity and questions unasked. Maybe it's because eight-year old Keito yearns for more thrill than the coffins on adult shoulders and the tranquil peace of the temple. Maybe it's because of the forgotten basket with the few fruits in it as offering for the alien that is undoubtedly picked up by now. Maybe because the prospect of vampires is cool. 

There's a blond kid on his heels too, now. Keito only knows two things about him: that his name is Tenshouin Eichi, and that he's going to die. 

Keito isn't unaware of death, as he is also not unaware of what it means to stroll around in a graveyard. He takes this boy's hand months after they've become close friends and he drags him in his room and sits him down on the tatami mats and tells him about the vampire in his graveyard. Eichi's eyes grow wide with childish adrenaline. 

"I wanna meet him," he says. Because he's a child and the curiosity in children means wanting to meet unnatural creatures such as vampires in graveyards beyond familiar temples. "You'll introduce me to him, right?"

"Of course," Keito says. Because as we'll come to know, Keito is far more enamoured by this blond child than he himself knows. And this is how he makes his decision.

-

Hand firmly holding onto his, Keito leads Eichi down to the graveyard slowly, carefully, the knowledge of this new friend being sickly a constant reminder in his mind. They weave their way through the stones as if they're walking through some sort of field on some sort of sunny day, and the sight of a familiar head of black sitting on top of his usual place graces their eyes soon after.

Sakuma Rei looks up from his feet. His scarlet eyes are demonic.

Eichi Tenshouin looks up at him. His blue eyes are full of wonder.

"Hey,  _ bouzu, _ " The alien says, hopping down from his place effortlessly. Hands shoved in his shorts, his gaze turns to Eichi with a frown. "Who'd ya bring?"

Keito steps in front of the boy. Protectively, possibly. "He's my friend. He wanted to see you."

Rei's lips loop into a small smile. " _ See _ me, eh? Do I look like some sorta caged animal to ya?"

Eichi peeks at him from up Keito's shoulder. "You're beautiful," he says, loudly, watching the alien curiously turn his eyes back on him. "It would be a shame to cage you up."

The boy in question laughs. "Spoken like the true elite. Say, kid, ya rich?" He straightens, hands moving to rest behind his back as he walks towards them. Keito takes a step back - makes Eichi take a step back. On instinct. "Would ya  _ like  _ to cage me up?" 

Eichi's eyes are sparkling. "Yes," he replies, without skipping a beat. 

Rei's smile twitches. "I see Hasumi-kun's found good company," he says, voice laced with an unexplainable undertone as he turns to face the green-haired boy again. "I don't see any point of ya coming here." 

Keito doesn't reply. There's an unspeakable energy around Sakuma Rei that makes him wary enough to not say a word in front of him, but he feels Eichi move away from behind his back and step right up to the vampire. His breath hitches in his throat at the sight.

"What's your name?" He asks.

"I don't give out my name so easy, kid," the alien says, baring his teeth. There's an obvious dislike in his voice at the way the situation is evolving, but Eichi presses on.

"My name's Tenshouin," he says, politely bowing down in the way he's probably been taught to do. "Tenshouin Eichi. Forgive me for forgetting, since mother has always said it's good to introduce yourself first."

Rei doesn't say a word, opting instead to observe him, silently. It takes a minute of quietness before he walks back to the grave he'd been sitting on, leaning against the stone with a bored expression on his face. 

"Tenshouin," he repeats, as if trying to get familiar with it. "And what's a rich, dyin' kid got to do meetin' with someone like  _ me?"  _

"I want to know you," he says, ignoring the implication that Rei is well aware of him - of his family. "I want to know your name."

"And what are ya gonna do with my name?" Rei steps closer, the threat in his voice unconcealed and so, obviously, evident. His hands drop to his sides and red peers into blue - overwhelming, towering. "What are ya gonna do with wanting to  _ know  _ me?" 

Eichi is eight years old. He's some kid from some cursed, rich lineage that's cursed with some sort of fatal illness. Sakuma Rei makes one mistake here: he expects too much from this child. He, in turn, is cursed with an immeasurable knowledge of the world, the cost heavy and painful, but his expectations are twisted. He does not know what to expect from a mere child. He sees the first abnormal suggestion in front of him, and latches onto it as a man starved. Eichi Tenshouin will not fulfil any of his expectations - at least, not now.

Keito sees this. There's no point in stepping between them, not when Rei will keep advancing and not when Eichi will keep pleading. After all, Keito is also a child. There's so much he can do in keeping an eccentric away.

"Heh, not gonna answer?"

Rei's sneering. Eichi's gaze does not falter.

"Ya can come back when ya got something, got it?" 

Rei looks at Keito. And then back at Eichi. And then at the ground, a low laugh rumbling in his throat. It's eerie.

So, extremely  _ eerie _ .

-

Keito turns eight and a half, and then nine. He does not go back. But then the alien in the graveyard visits by himself, for once.

-

Some funeral processions are supposed to take place the morning Sakuma Rei drops his polished, black shoes outside the temple and unceremoniously makes his way in with a knock at the pillars that hold the front up. Keito isn't around - his mother, as Rei seems so - assures that his 'friend' is possibly still asleep, and that he can wake him up. And so she leads him to his room. And so Rei goes in without a word and with all the smiles of a polite, young boy from a prestigious family. They're all probably used to this.

Keito looks serene, in his sleep. There's a book lying open next to his head, a pair of glasses folded neatly on top of the pages. The room is tidy, and Rei takes in his surroundings as he sits himself down on the chair next to Keito's study desk. Legs cross over each other, and he leans in just a bit to prop his elbow over his knee and rest his chin on the back of his hand. 

_ Friend.  _ The word feels foreign as he whispers it to himself, rolling it on his tongue over and over until he shakes his head. He can count the amount of times he's seen Keito on one hand. They're more so acquaintances, more so just a way of company to pass time, every now and then. After all, aliens do not have friends.

The curtains are closed. His energy slowly, but surely seeps back in as red eyes focus onto the small boy on the futon, taking in each and every movement before he hears a small sigh. Straightening himself, he watches Keito get up from the futon with a yawn, stretching one of his arms and rubbing his eyes with his other hand, seemingly having gone without noticing Rei's presence. Which is odd.

Rei's not used to this. 

He watches him get up, and thinks that it's probably because of the glasses.

"Oi,  _ bouzu _ ."

Keito startles. He whips towards the direction of the voice with a fearful expression on his face, bending down to fretfully grab his glasses and push them onto his face. He stares.

"You," he says, because there's nothing more fit to say. He looks towards and then back at him. "You- in my-?"

"Ya really have a nice set of relatives," Rei says, because Keito's still grappling at the fact that  _ Sakuma Rei  _ is inside his room and had been watching him sleep.

Watching him sleep.

"Pervert!" He yells, cutting off whatever Rei has yet to say and instead watching the vampire's eyes blow. "P-Pervert, did you watch me while I was sleeping?!" 

" _ Bou-" _

"Out!"

-

Rei takes a languid sip of his tea. Keito's parents do the same. They're sitting across him with their legs folded under their knees. The cushions are comfortable. The tatami mats feel nice. 

-

Keito is obviously wary.

Under the pretense that Sakuma Rei is a friend, having had travelled directly to the main temple from the devil knows where, his parents have already left for their work. 

And so, he's left alone. With the alien sitting across, tipping his head back as the last gulp of tea goes in. Keito watches his Adam's apple bob, eyes trailing up to the fangs that are exposed for a split second before Rei purses his lips shut and puts the mug next to where he's sitting. Legs under his knees, red eyes looking into green, black hair swept behind and tied into a simple, red ribbon.

Even now, he's undeniably beautiful. Over the little time, he's grown more beautiful.

Keito shakes his head.

"Why did you come here?" He asks, hands poised on his knees, clenching and unclenching nervously. It's always been  _ him  _ that would go. 

"Ya took my word to yer little heart, didntcha?," Rei drawls, "When I told yer friend to come back when he's got the answer?"

Keito opens his mouth, and closes it.

"It wasn't aimed at ya,  _ bouzu, _ " he continues, albeit more airily. "Ya should visit me more, yeah?"

"Eichi is my friend," Keito says, suddenly. "Why are you like that towards him?" 

Rei blinks. 

"He knows it, anyways. Your name."

An oppressing silence takes over. Keito watches the vampire fiddle with his hands, as if mulling over his words and coming up with an appropriate answer.

"Children shouldn't know the names of the devil," Rei says, once he looks up. "Ain't that more suitable?"

"Then, are you the devil?"

Keito gets up, and there's a violent fury in his eyes that he can't hope to act on. He moves closer to Rei, looking at him in his scarlet eyes without a reservation. "You're a child, too,  _ Sakuma-san _ ."

He doesn't know what does it, then. Whether it's the affirmation that he's a child or whether it's because he's called him by his name, he doesn't know what compels the throaty laughter that rings out of Sakuma Rei's throat at the statement a full few minutes after Keito's said it. 

Is he being ridiculed? 

There’s a light in Sakuma Rei’s eyes that he’s never seen before - not in the times he’s looked beyond the window of his door into the graveyard, not towards his loving devotees, and certainly never by himself. It’s jarring, to say the least.

“Yer the first one that’s called me that,  _ bouzu.” _

Keito stills. “Called you what?”

“Sakuma. Yer the first person t’call me by my name.” Rei looks as if he’s witnessed something incredibly divine, his grin only getting wider by the second. He grabs Keito’s hands and brings him towards him, placing his hands on his shoulders. 

“What am I,  _ bouzu?” _

Keito, obviously confused: “What do you mean?”

“What am I to ya?” It seems like a challenge, the more he goes on. An irrefutable challenge. “Just some alien runnin’ around yer graves?”

“You’re human, aren’t you?”

  
  


The world comes to a standstill.

-

Keito does not go visit the graveyard, anymore. This is mainly because the graveyard crawls up and on its knees towards him from then on, instead.

-

“ _ Bouzu,  _ the first step is to keep a cool head, yeah? Don’t go thinkin’ about shit from last week, keep yer mind on  _ this.” _

A loud, messy burst of music graces the main temple’s entrance, and Rei’s solid grip on his guitar does nothing to quell Keito’s rising anxiety. So much for the peace and prosperity the temple is known and regularly acknowledged for. 

Keito’s own shamisen rests easy in his lap. He looks at Rei nervously and at his guitar nervously and adjusts his glasses as a coping mechanism more than anything else. "Sakuma-san, could you stop being so noisy?"

Rei grins at him, fangs glinting in the low light passing through the windows. "Noise is rock's second nature, ya gotta  _ learn."  _ And lets out a second - louder - note, to spite his statement. Keito looks at him with disbelief.

"Incorrigible." 

-

Eichi comes to visit less and less as Keito grows, and it's when he's thirteen and watching his parents talk over business by themselves on the dinner table that Keito realizes a key thing: Eichi is dying.

He's hospitalized and his breathing is growing quicker, and he hasn't seen him for over a month.

He shoves rice in his mouth.

He's hospitalized and his eyes don't open for days at a time, and he hasn't seen him for over a month.

Another bite.

He's hospitalized and his voice was weak, so  _ unbearably  _ weak the last time Keito'd seen him before the watch on his wrist started ringing and he had to watch suited men carry out his frail body from the main temple.

Keito gets up. His parents fix him with a confused look.

He runs.

-

"Honestly, you have such little faith in me," Eichi complains. At least he doesn't sound weaker. "I'm not gonna die so easily, Keito."

Keito frowns, handing him the glass of water that he's asked for before settling down on his own chair and looking straight at the blond.

"I doubt that, Eichi." He pauses, and then vaguely gestures at the blond boy. "You're so weak." 

"Rude," Eichi says, pushing his tongue out at Keito. "You shouldn't say stuff like that, you know? It'll only jinx it~"

"Jinx what?"

"You know," Eichi says, and it feels as if the world comes to a standstill, again.. Keito doesn't know. Maybe this is some sort of omen. Blue eyes solidify into jewels, something completely objectified as they turn to look at Keito directly in his. "My remaining time."

-

"Say, Sakuma-san."

Rei looks up from his book. He's more or less decided to stay at Keito's during the day instead of wandering around funeral homes, which in consideration is a good option. Not good for Keito's mentality in a constant, but good nonetheless.

"Ya got somethin' to tell me?" Rei says, setting his book down next to him and crossing his hands over his lap as he shuffles into a more comfortable position. "Or did one of yer funny little manga get an update?"

Keito swats at him. "They're not  _ funny little manga!" _

"Right. Storybook, then."

Keito does not have the energy to prolong this, opting to avoid it entirely. Bantering like this has also become a constant, too.

Sakuma Rei is much more intelligent than him. He doesn't flaunt it, nor does he act indefinitely superior. People flock to him for his intelligence and mysticism and think him a god among humans, and this is where Keito thinks those devotees are wrong.

He's a child. More than anything, he's still a child. Why, in the eyes of adults, he ceases to be one -

Keito shakes his head. "You've got connections, right?"

Rei perks up. "My family does, yeah. What, you need some sorta limited edition action figure from overseas? I can getcha one."

"No, no…" Keito hesitates, bringing up his hands. "I just…"

"Is it about that friend?" Obviously, he's not unaware of Eichi. Obviously.

"You don't have to, Sakuma-san," Keito mumbles. "But-"

"Why not? We're friends. You can rely on me, Nobita-kun."

A pause.

"Don't take his name in vain, Sakuma-san. I'll kick you out."

Another pause.

And a quiet, "thank you." 

Rei snorts, and moves to ruffle Keito's hair, revelling in his yelling for the rest of his stay.

-

Keito enrolls into Yumenosaki Academy when he's fifteen.

Rei enrolls in with him simply because there's nothing else he sees in front of his future, except for his hand in his and a need to play. The guitar on his back has never felt lighter. 

Eichi enrolls with him simply because he's from the renowned Tenshouin family and that he can move any second if a concerning situation arises. And also because he, too, sees nothing.

-

The idea of a revolution is fleeting, at first. Presumably, nothing more than a short-lived fantasy, playing around the heads of teenage boys that do not fit into the socially-constructed norms of a modern-day idol academy. 

Keito watches Eichi drift away from these norms.

  
  


He holds out his hand for him, without a second thought.

-

Sakuma Rei takes the Council President seat that year. It’s easy, for an eccentric like him. It’s easier when the devotees only seem to increase in number, behind his back. He does not see them anymore, but that doesn’t halt it.

-

“Bouzu.”

Keito looks up from his textbook. 

Rei’s smiling down at him. Hair tied back, a keychain slinging in his finger. He looks as he always does - unhinged. Keito has to bite back a  _ button up your shirt, Sakuma-senpai. _

“What do you want, Sakuma-senpai?”

“I wanna take ya somewhere.”

Keito quirks a brow. He adjusts his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, looking up at his friend with a confused expression. “We have a test in an hour.”

“Yeah. And?”

“We have to give...the test.”

Rei shakes his head. “That’s where yer wrong, bouzu. Ya don’t have any obligation.”

“Sakuma-senpai, I want to graduate.”

“That’s on you. Also, I preferred the  _ san _ better.”

Keito sighs. “Where do you want to go?”

-

“A livehouse.”

Rei’s allowed entry as if he’s some sort of celebrated..celebrity. The waiting room he’s shown to is clean, snacks and bottles of water placed neatly in rows on top of the coffee table in front of them. Keito follows him with his frown growing more by the second, and watches the vampire plop down on the sofas as if they’re personal property.

Probably are, the way he beckons Keito to sit down across him. 

“What are we doing here, Sakuma-san?”

“Wanted t’make ya see what I’ve been up to,” He says, grinning down at him. The door behind them creaks open. “Ya spend  _ way  _ too much time around that blondie.”

Keito turns to see who’s come in the room.

“That’d be my bud, Kaoru-kun~” Rei coos, as he gets up to make his way around the newcomer.

“Gross, Sakuma-san,” the alleged Kaoru-kun says, “You’re just my moneymaker, nothing else.”

Keito frowns. “Hakaze -?”

Kaoru looks at Keito. “Huh? You know me or something?”

"You're from Yumenosaki, aren't you?" Keito asks. "Kaoru..Hakaze?" 

The boy in question pulls a face. "Huh. It doesn't make me happy in the least that a  _ guy  _ remembers who I am." But then he's rolling his eyes and there's a small smile on his face as he comes to stand next to Keito, jutting his thumb from him to Rei. "You with him?"

Keito blinks. "Pardon?"

"Are you performing?" And then points again to Rei, who's decided to conveniently start stripping right in front of them, taking his jacket off of his shoulders and throwing it over the sofa. Keito stares. "With him?"

"Performing….?"

-

The audience is empty, Keito notes. Mostly. There's some kids hanging around near the stage with some suspicious looking drinks in their hands and laughing around. Some of them are first years from Yumenosaki, an even smaller bundle second years. Keito frowns for the umpteenth time that hour as he tries to get comfortable standing in front of the stage, arms coming to cross over his chest. For a brief moment, he wonders how Eichi's doing. He's overdue on his regular visit.

It's then that the stage lights up, and Sakuma Rei comes in.

He's dressed in a sort of getup Keito's not exactly unfamiliar with - a leather jacket hangs lowly off of his bare shoulders, nothing under except for a sleeveless, red shirt. His leather pants are decorated chains and belts all over, and his hair looks messier than it does usually.

He's wearing black lipstick, too. Keito wonders where he could've got it, but then all his thoughts are wiped out as he sees Kaoru tumble in beside him with two mics, handing one over to Rei while succeeding in running a hand through his hair as if to style it further worse, before he jogs up to in front of the stage and waves his hands around. A possible cue. 

The stage lights glow. Curious eyes turning towards the stage in procession, Sakuma Rei makes his voice rage.

-

"Sakuma-san, that was incredible." 

Rei laughs. He's splayed out on the sofas like an exhausted cat and Kaoru's counting the money from the entrance fees that had accumulated over the course of the live in a corner of his own. Sweat covers his entire body as if he's walked through the desert instead of yelling rock into the mic for the past few hours, and he brings a hand up to push the bangs out of his eyes.

"Bouzu, ya should perform with me, sometime."

Keito scoffs. "I am not that sort of delinquent." 

"Mhm. You're missin' out on the fun."

-

A light bulb. A crackling. Keito's eyes shoot up in the middle of the night.

-

"Keito," Eichi says. He looks paler than he's ever looked, and the boy in question walks slowly to his side. There's a small bouquet of flowers - a small bouquet of unsaid words - that he sets next to Eichi's bed, that day. 

Sitting down next to him, he looks at the blond boy with an unspeakable expression. "How're you doing, Eichi?"

"Better," Eichi says, voice soft and all smiles and sunshine and as if they're not in the middle of planning on tearing their academy apart. "I feel  _ especially  _ better with you around~"

"How you can make jokes like that when you're…" Keito pauses, and sighs as he sees him look away and at the window, his small smile never leaving his features. It's almost infectious. Almost.

"It's good to be positive when you still have time, you know?" Eichi says, "You're gonna live long, Keito. You should loosen up."

"As if you'd let me," Keito retorts. There's a month's preparations swimming around his head incessantly and the fact that he's going to betray -  _ no,  _ take advantage of the situation -

Keito looks at the floor.  _ Shit. _

"It's unfortunate," he hears Eichi mumble, "but change is necessary." Looking back at Keito, he continues: "We'll be the mark of  _ change _ , Keito. Don't you want Yumenosaki to be better, too?" 

Keito doesn't say a word. There's a ton of unsaid feelings that are rising within him each passing day and he's pushing them down with his trust and unspeakable love for Eichi each passing day, letting it amalgamate into trouble and nervousness and nothing more. He does not say a word even if he agrees, even if it'll be a better chance of option for the generations ahead. 

Eichi realizes this, to some sort of extent. He does not push him for an answer, choosing to ignore it entirely on his own and as well in favour of watching Keito get up from his chair, instead.

"I'll see you next time, Eichi."

"I hope you'd visit for longer, you know. It wouldn't hurt."

"Maybe."

-

Keito corners Rei in the student council room as soon as he's free from his classes and has to run back instantly as to not miss him. Rei looks up from his papers and blinks at him, watching Keito stumble into the room with one hand slamming down on his desk and one fixing his glasses, again.

"Sakuma-san," he says. "Let me be on stage with you."

Rei blinks again, and then almost starts to glow off of his own accord in the evening lighted room.

"That's the spirit,  _ bouzu _ ."

-

Rei, in unmistakable Rei fashion, leaves the country during the weekend. Breaking down Keito's short-lived euphoria. There's two first years wagging their tails at Keito and a red-haired delinquent next to his side left. He wants to pummel himself off a cliff.

-

Rei, in unmistakable Rei fashion, comes back as soon as Keito's done plunging himself in hell and back. Koga runs around them like an overly excited puppy. The redheaded delinquent - Kiryu, also somehow extremely talented - is off making last minute adjustments to their stage outfits.

"Sakuma-san, you're vile." 

Rei looks at Keito with a grin. He's tying his hair back into a small ponytail and getting ready for a last minute practice before they have to shred their performance, tonight. "I know. And are you supposed to be some sorta angel?"

"You could've spared me the pain of taking care of those children," Keito says, with a groan. His hand automatically goes to rub his temples as he watches Rei pull his shoes on and stand up, stretching languidly. "I can't believe you just left me like that."

Rei seems to ponder over this. "Mhm. Here's the thing, right? I trusted ya. And ya went through with it."

" _ Trusted?  _ For what?'

"You helped them to grow, didn'tcha? I owe ya, again."

"Again?!" (Which shouldn't be a surprise, Keito thinks inwardly.)

"Yeah. Again. Forgot about the first one?"

"Enlighten me."

A sort of serious air encompasses as Rei glances at Rei with an unreadable expression on his features. And then turning away, a: "It's easy. I'm indebted to ya because you don't think to me as some sorta monster. Even if you're probably treating me one, as we speak."

-

Keito realizes something, then.

-

Grabbing him from the scruff of his collar, Keito finds himself pushing Rei against the nearest wall he can find, green eyes glowering venemonously, yet restrained and calm as he grips onto him tight.

"You know."

Rei lets out a low, guttural laugh. His fangs seem to have grown longer from his time abroad, and if nothing else they're a little terrifying. "Course I do. What do ya take me for?"

Yes. Because he's always more intelligent. Always been more perceptive.

Keito's grip grows tighter. 

"Hey, bouzu. I got a question." It's not exactly asking him for permission, because he just says it, anyways. "Is it your dream? Or  _ his?" _

Are you jealous?

"It's mine. You wouldn't know anyways, would you?"

Rei ignores this. "It's real stupid, ya know?"

Even if  _ he's  _ the one pinning Rei down, it feels as if the dominating force behind this is the vampire himself.

_ "Is there any guarantee that you'll be rewarded for sacrificin' your life all for someone else's sake?" _

-

Keito pulls on his leather pants with a grimace. Kaoru's moved behind him to help him adjust, pulling his belt around and attaching several chains onto it as Keito adjusts his corny leopard print jacket. 

"Nervous?" The livehouse owner gets up as soon as he's done, moving five steps back immediately as if he were in danger of some curse. Despite having done it unasked. "This is your first time, isn't it?"

"Unfortunately," Keito says, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides as he walks over to the body-length mirror in the room and gives himself a look over. "Sakuma-san should be here by now." 

"He probably is. Want me to check?"

Keito turns, and nods rapidly.

Kaoru scoffs, but then grins. "You're such a goody-two shoes, aren't ya?" He walks over to the door and vaguely waves at Keito before closing it behind him, leaving the boy alone to ponder over whatever the hell he meant by that.

-

"Hey,  _ bouzu."  _ Rei looks light. Light and and natural as if he's nothing without the stage he stands on. Nothing without the blinding lights on top of their bodies and the overwhelming wailing of the crowd beneath them. He's still in his uniform and Kuro is immediately coming over to adjust Keito's outfit wherever he feels the need for it. "Ya sure look cool."

"It was all thanks to Kiryu," he replies, looking at the boy in question with a nod. "It's incredible how you could do this in a week."

"Yeah. Thanks for givin' me a chance," Kuro says, tucking loose ends of Keito's shirt into his belt. "It was fun on my end, too." 

"I'm glad. Thanks for being reliable."

Kuro grins. "Anytime."

-

Keito stands on stage with the sort of reluctance he hasn't felt ever since he'd first made the decision to step out and into the graveyard to meet the alien he'd been quietly watching out of the small window of his room at age five. It feels jarring in a sense where it should feel the farthest from jarring. 

Rei's hair is billowing. His hat is poised perfectly on his head in a way that makes meeting his eyes mean more than what it usually does. There's a sort of tension in the air Keito is sure he can cut down with a sword.

Is this alright?

In the end, is this a good decision?

He feels an ironic warmth push against his shoulder. "Hey."

_ Bouzu  _ goes missed.

"Hey," Keito whispers.

"Let's  _ burn  _ this stage, yeah?"

Keito pauses to look at him. A minute passes, and then two, and then he takes in a breath and forces himself to turn his gaze towards the rising audience.

"Crimson, Sakuma-san." He licks his lips, feeling the first few notes of DEATH GAME HOLIC rumble through the ground before the inevitable. "Let's burn it  _ crimson." _

-

The stage does not burn crimson. Keito burns, instead. And Rei Sakuma leaves him to burn.

-

Wait for me, Eichi. Let's make our dream come true together.

-

"You think too highly of me,  _ bouzu,"  _ comes the overly familiar voice. "I'm not some omnipotent god, and this isn't like some scenario from some o'those little manga you own, either."

Keito's barely hanging on. Beneath him, the ground has split into two. Beneath him, fire crackles like a dragon roaring, waiting to be freed. And his only line of life is a spider's thread. Rei holds the scissors, intent all too damn well.

Keito doesn't speak a word. Not even when the vampire - no,  _ monster,  _ brings them towards the string. 

"And thus the schemer falls victim to his own scheme," Rei says, with a whistle. "Ya got any last words?"

"Why won't you help me?"

The fire's crackles are overwhelming.

Keito feels like he's drowning in it. The fire. His throat is parched and sweat dribbles down in buckets from his forehead and his hair sticks over his eyes like he's seen hell. Which this probably is. Kuro isn't here to help him, either. Kuro can't do anything against an eccentric force such as him.

"Please help me."

Rei kneels down. The thread is loosening more on its own accord to the point where the scissors wouldn't be necessary within a few minutes. He doesn't seem fazed by this.

"Hey,  _ bouzu,  _ is it outrageous for me to want to live for my own dreams? And here I thought I wasn't some sorta special existence to you."

_ Is there any guarantee that you'll be rewarded for sacrificin' your life all for someone else's sake? _

Keito looks into his eyes, but he only sees blue.

Eichi's waiting for him.

"It's hard to look at you as anything else, Sakuma-san."  _ Please help me. _

"Right." And the scissors snap.

-

Fortunately, Eichi Tenshouin has wings. Even if they're second hand and aren't physically attached to the skin between his shoulders, they're wings. 

Keito  _ feels _ himself walk behind him again before he sees it.

-

The Five Oddballs step onto the stage. Their very existence is a premonition - a sign, a symbol. Karma in a tight suit, black heels clacking on the wooden floor under the dim lights. 

A clap of gloved hands, the siren to war. 

Wings piercing the air as if it were glass. A marionette, ropes around the eyes. Poison concoction. Shark teeth. Red eyes, a fanged smile.

-

_ fine  _ is relentless. 

-

Eichi lives to see the sun. Rei disappears, again.

-

Keito leans against his desk. There's a stack of papers he still has to go through before he can willingly get himself to leave the room and go home, and he's already finished the last can of his energy drinks quota for the day. He takes off his glasses, setting them aside as he lays his head down on the desk. The wooden desk against his forehead hurts. Just a little.

It's been a week since Eichi's been hospitalized, again. Third year's started too brusque, too unhinged for Keito's liking, but there's no other option. There's a ton of work to do and there's a heavy feeling in his heart for whenever he has to look over and see the empty council president seat. It hadn't felt heavy when Rei'd taken it up just as a favor for him. It hadn't felt heavy when he was devising plans all day long in his head. It sure as hell shouldn't feel heavy, now.

The spider's string has no way to build itself back up. In its place, Keito acquires a red ribbon, instead.

He holds this ribbon up, arms stretched as far from each other as they can go. 

The guillotine from the sky rips it in half.

-

Don't you want to live for your own dream?

Are you not tired, already?

-

Keito is tired.

-

Gloved hands, tight suit, black heels clicking against the wooden floor. 

Karma had stood at his door, too, once. 

-

"Hasumi-dono, I brought you some tea!"

Kanzaki Souma, sword and all, comes as gracefully into the student council room as does a kitten attempting to not knock down a laptop screen. 

He gently sets the cup of tea down next to Keito's seven empty cans of energy drink, hopping over to pat at his sleeping senior's back in an attempt to wake him. 

He does not wake up. In turn, it only seems to increase the sounds of light snoring that had been emanating from his face, and Souma watches this for a few seconds before running to find Kuro.

-

"Oh, he's passed out alright."

Souma frowns. "What shall we do, Kiryu-dono?"

Kuro brings a hand up on his chin, looking at his sleeping unit-mate thoughtfully. "We could jus' carry him home."

"A splendid idea, as expected of Kiryu-dono!" Souma replies enthusiastically, preparing to run. "I shall go and inform Hasumi-dono's family of our untimely arrival posthaste!"

"Post...what?'

-

Kuro sees him in the graveyard beyond the main temple before Souma has the chance to, mainly because the latter's rushing to princess-carry Keito into his family home.

He makes sure they've gone in before he jogs up to the place, rounding up the massive gravestone he has his eyes on before he sees the unmistakable figure perched on top of it.

"Kiryu-kun," Rei's murmur of a voice has a sort of edge to it that the man in question hasn't ever heard him use before. "It seems that you are well, hm?" 

"I didn't know ya came back, Sakuma."

"Yes, well," the black haired man sighs as he hops down off of the grave, hands automatically going to his back as he opens his scarlet, piercing eyes. "This old man doesn't want any sort of attention so quick, you see? It's only since yesterday that I have, yet again, succumbed to the minute pleasures of Japan."

Kuro blinks. "Since when did ya start talkin' like some sorta hag?"

"You need not be concerned."

Kuro is very much concerned. He does not voice this in favour of holding a hand out to Rei and watching the other look at it with a bemused expression.

"Welcome back."

"Why, thank you. It feels rejuvenating to have been welcomed by a man as handso-"

"Ya wanna see how  _ Danna's  _ doin'?" Kuro interrupts, mainly because he does not want to hear the rest of the sentence. "I don't see any reason for your bein' here, Sakuma."

Rei pauses at  _ danna.  _ He stares briefly at Kuro, and then lets out a small laugh. "Since when did you two get so close? May I begin to expect an invitation sometime soon?"

Kuro goes red at the implication, and averts his gaze as a reaction. "Ain't anythin' like that."

"Sure," the vampire cackles. 

-

Keito opens his eyes. 

It's blurry. His glasses…wait. He moves to sit up, somehow finding himself tucked inside the futon inside his room instead of the wooden desk in the student council one. When did he get here?

Running his hand on the floor, his knuckles brush against the familiar frame and he picks them up.

Blinking into focus, the first thing he sees is...Kuro.

Kuro, arms crossed on his chest. Eyes closed, shallow breathing. Leaning against the wall in a sitting position. It's bound to be a little uncomfortable. It's cute. Sort of. Keito finds himself smiling at the sight, and then slaps his cheeks lightly in a panic as he notices it. He's just about to get up and try to wake Kuro up when he hears an all too familiar voice.

"Hasumi-kun."

Keito whips his head back.

His eyes widen. "Sakuma-san, when did y-"

Rei leans in uncomfortably close. "No proper greeting, hm?"

"S-Sak-"

Rei holds his gaze for a few seconds before he seems satisfied enough to lean back, again. "Same old Hasumi-kun, hm? You didn't change at all~"

"What-" Keito takes in a breath. "Sakuma-san, why are you speaking like that."

"What do you mean? I've always spoken like this."

"No, you- dear Buddha, you're trying to get me to yell on  _ purpose _ , aren't you?"

"This old man can't dream of it," he says, cheerfully pointing at the sleeping Kuro. "Also, a vampire's ears are sensitive at the time of day, my dear Hasumi-kun."

"It's way past evening."

Rei blinks. "Oh. It seems as if my perception of time seems to be b-"

"Please shut your mouth."

-

Rei doesn't ask him how'd it go - the entire time he was away. He doesn't ask him how Eichi's doing and he doesn't ask how they're holding up against TrickStar's inevitable resolution and he doesn't ask him about  _ danna.  _ In turn, he doesn't tell him anything from his own end of things, either. 

In some way or another, the silence is good. Better than anything. Better than to discuss things more painful than what they've been through on their ends of things, anyways.

They're both, in some sort or another, kind of tired.

-

Graduation comes along quietly. There's a loud live and a loud series of songs and singing and laughter and crying and everything everyone is supposed to feel on a graduation. There's kids clinging onto their seniors and there's seniors clinging onto their kids and then there's Oogami Koga who's trying to hit his seniors with the back end of his guitar for whatever reason. 

Keito looks at this with reservation. Kuro's standing next to him with an arm around his waist and Souma is trying his very best to not cry his eyes out. 

Once again, Eichi is not here. And this time, Keito does not give it a second thought.

-

When it comes to the blond in question, there's no mistaking the bond they still hold close. There's no mistaking the love they've accumulated from their childhood to how, even though reciprocating it physically is serving more of a hassle than anything. There's no mistaking what they are today, but there's also no mistaking that they've found other people.

Other people. Better in ways they aren't better by themselves. Keito can wrap his arms around Kuro in a way that brings him more warmth than the very thought of hugging Eichi. Eichi can look at a certain blue-haired eccentric and smile more genuinely than he's ever smiled down at Keito. 

They've come to respect this. Unspoken it may be, but they've come to respect this. 

And so Keito does not spare him second thoughts, anymore.

-

The alien in the graveyard becomes a sort of motif for when Rei calls Keito one day and asks him if he'd like to have dinner over his and Kaoru's apartment.

-

"Hasumi-kun fell over because of your  _ beauty?"  _ Kaoru says, with a laugh. "I find that hard to believe."

"I find it hard to believe that he still finds my pain funny," Keito deadpans. Kuro sneaks an arm around his shoulders and squeezes it gently.

"C'mon, Kei-kun, it  _ was  _ funny!" Rei says, right after he's dumped some more of the mushroom stew on their table into his bowl, despite having enough. "To think - you thought of me as an  _ alien-" _

"An alien?" Kuro turns to look at Keito. "Danna, ya were a funny kid, weren't ya?"

"Be quiet, Kiryu," he groans. "Not you too."

Kuro grins. "Can't help it, Danna. Not when yer bein' so cute."

Keito blushes, instantly. Rei and Kaoru boo.

"In any case," Keito clears his throat, steering clear of his friends' building need to tease him more. "How did  _ you  _ -" He points at Kaoru, who winks flirtatiously (incorrigible) "end up with  _ him?"  _ Finger shifting from Kaoru to Rei, Keito expects this to unhinge them. Just a little.

They frown, and bring their hands to their chins in thought together. And then:

"Oh. We just made out, like once-"

"That's enough."

-

Keito remembers something when AKATSUKI is about to go on stage. It's a small scale event, mostly - a sort of promotional event for an upcoming festival at the local amusement park, but it does not hinder him from saying it, nonetheless. 

They've just stepped on stage and the curtains are about to part, any minute. There's a sort of tradition they've made up now where Keito stands in the middle (unless the choreography does not require it) and Souma holds his hand from the left. Kuro holds his hand from the right. And he doesn't know what led up to this and he doesn't know if Karma's changed from her black heels to red pumps but he thinks this was meant to be.

And so remembering it should be meant to be. Probably. Maybe. Somehow. 

He squeezes their hands in his, feeling their gazes shift onto him immediately.

  
  


Taking in a breath, and then exhaling. Looking up, and watching the curtains part. "Hey."

"Hm?"

  
  


Keito smiles. And it's not the first time he's smiled like he does now and it certainly won't be the last, because AKATSUKI stands with him and he is one of them. He's eighteen and he's okay now and there's nothing stopping him, anymore.

  
  


"Let's burn the stage," he says, mostly under his breath, but he feels his unit-mates perk up by his sides, nonetheless.

  
  
  


_ Let's burn this stage crimson with our souls.  _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> so this was sitting in my drafts for a month


End file.
